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APULICA / FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND PULSES

Gargano Femminello lemon

PGI · Slow Food Presidium · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Puglia

Apulica editorial team · Sources checked:

In brief

History and origin

According to the sources, the story of Gargano citrus begins around the year 1000, when Melo, prince of Bari, sent fruit from the promontory to Normandy, including pomi citrini, to show the Normans how rich the Apulian land was. At the end of the seventeenth century friar Filippo Bernardi described a Gargano rich in citrus, with Venetian and Dalmatian traders arriving by sea to load wine, oranges and lemons.

The Femminello del Gargano, locally called limone nostrale, is regarded by the Slow Food Presidium and the Park Authority as the oldest lemon variety in Italy. For centuries oranges, lemons and bitter oranges, wrapped in the coloured tissue papers of the citrus trading houses, left in ships' holds for the United States and England.

Since the eighteenth century, every February a procession in honour of San Valentino, protector of the orchards, has climbed the Carmine hill to bless the trees. Today the lemon is protected by a PGI and is part of the Slow Food Presidium for Gargano citrus.

Sources: Qualigeo (Fondazione Qualivita) — Limone Femminello del Gargano IGP · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio agrumi del gargano · Ente Parco nazionale del Gargano — Agrumi dell'oasi agrumaria

Area and method of production

The PGI covers the territories of Vico del Gargano, Ischitella and Rodi Garganico, on the northern coast of the promontory in the province of Foggia. The local climate lets the fruit stay on the tree for a long time, so picking can go on all year round.

The specification describes careful, low-impact growing. Tillage is limited to spring hoeing, with fertilisation still mostly organic; spring pruning, before new growth starts, shapes the dome-like canopy and balances growth and fruiting. Windbreaks protect the trees, and irrigation is concentrated between May and October.

Picking is done by hand with shears, and artificial ripening is forbidden. The maximum yield is 35 tonnes per hectare. The lemons are sold in rigid wooden or cardboard containers holding from one to 25 kilograms.

Sources: Qualigeo (Fondazione Qualivita) — Limone Femminello del Gargano IGP · eAmbrosia — Limone Femminello del Gargano (PGI-IT-0297)

How to recognise it

The hallmark of the Femminello del Gargano is its peel, rich in essential oils and intensely fragrant, bright citrine yellow. The flesh is very juicy and yellow-green.

The fruit changes appearance according to the flowering it comes from, spring or summer-autumn: its shape ranges from ellipsoid or oblong to ovoid, down to almost round fruit. To qualify for the PGI it must be at least 50 millimetres across and weigh no less than 80 grams.

The Slow Food Presidium notes that the Femminello del Gargano comes in three types and is picked all year round; the Park Authority highlights its fragrant flesh. Next to the lemon, in the same orchards, grow the blond oranges, the Duretta and the bitter orange.

Sources: Qualigeo (Fondazione Qualivita) — Limone Femminello del Gargano IGP · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio agrumi del gargano · Ente Parco nazionale del Gargano — Agrumi dell'oasi agrumaria

In the kitchen

The Femminello keeps in the fridge or in a cool, dry place and is used fresh or in many recipes of the Foggia area. Its juice and fragrant zest season meat, fish and fried dishes and can replace rich dressings.

It is the base for preserves, marmalades and jams, candied peel, biscuits and cakes, and liqueurs: the Presidium's producers make limoncello, candied peel and marmalade from it. Orange and lemon marmalade is listed among Apulia's traditional products: it is made from freshly picked fruit cooked with water and sugar, and has an intense citrus scent and a sweet-and-sour taste.

In the towns of the PGI area people also make caramelle di limone e arancia, strips of peel soaked for days in frequently changed water and then cooked in caramel, a home recipe passed on by word of mouth.

Sources: Qualigeo (Fondazione Qualivita) — Limone Femminello del Gargano IGP · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio agrumi del gargano · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia (Regione Puglia, Università di Bari) — Caramelle di limone arancia · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia (Regione Puglia, Università di Bari) — Marmellata di arancia e limone

Where to taste it

Rodi Garganico is known as the lemon town, while Vico del Gargano and Ischitella are the orange towns: all three look out over the northern coast of the Gargano, between sea and woods. According to the Park Authority, the citrus fruit can be bought directly from producers in Rodi, Vico and Ischitella.

Rodi stands on a rocky headland between two beaches, a short way east of Lake Varano, surrounded by citrus groves, olives and pines; in the past it traded oranges and wine with Dalmatia. It is a seaside resort and a good base for discovering the citrus gardens of the coast.

In Vico del Gargano, on 14 February, the feast of San Valentino brings together devotion and citrus: the procession carries the saint's statue up to the Carmine hill to bless the orchards, while the town is decorated with oranges and laurel.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio agrumi del gargano · Ente Parco nazionale del Gargano — Agrumi dell'oasi agrumaria · Ente Parco nazionale del Gargano — Identikit dei comuni: Rodi Garganico · Ente Parco nazionale del Gargano — In Puglia il San Valentino è a Vico del Gargano

Protection

When

Where

Puglia

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Gargano citrus

Arancia del Gargano PGI, Limone Femminello del Gargano PGI, bitter-sweet melangolo and a Slow Food Presidium: walled groves, an export history, the harvest calendar and Saint Valentine in Vico.

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